yorke speaks the obvious

The following article appeared on Spinner.com, which is owned by AOL (yes, that AOL), which was once owned by media giant Time Warner, so I don't mind copping the text and sharing it here.

Thom Yorke Warns the Music Business ‘Will Fold in Months’

In a rare interview, Radiohead frontman
Thom Yorke has warned young musicians
not to tie themselves to the “sinking ship”
of the music industry, suggesting it will
soon collapse. The singer said it is “only a
matter of time — months rather than years
— before the music business establishment
completely folds,” he said in an interview
for a school textbook.

He advises musicians to self-release music
rather than yearn for a major label contract,
suggesting the loss of the mainstream
music industry will be “no great loss to the
world.”

His group, who were previously signed to
EMI, shook the industry after offering a
‘pay what you want’ system for the digital
release of ‘In Rainbows’ in 2007. The model
has since become a common option for
groups selling their music online with
stores such as BandCamp.com.

Although the concept of the whole music
establishment folding may seem implausible,
it could be agreed that the annual deluge
of music graduates often find they have
few full-time prospects. The RIAA report
that music piracy is now costing 71,060 US
jobs and $2.7 billion (£1.86 billion) in
workers’ earnings every year. However,
hard times have encouraged some of the
most prolific music movements in history.
The modern affordability of recording
equipment and global distribution could be
the factors that prove Thom Yorke right.

The interview was for a new school textbook,
The Rax Active Citizen Toolkit, which
aims to engage young people with political
issues, and also features interviews with Ms
Dynamite and newsreader Jon Snow.

Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon knocked Radiohead for its pay-what-you-want download of In Rainbows, saying that Radiohead's decision will ultimately hurt smaller, poorer bands. Ironic, because in the new Internet-music age, those smaller bands have distinct advantages over label-signed bands, because those poor bands' decisions aren't guided by contracts or licensing agreements. Regardless of what Ms. Gordon or the industry heads say, the pay-what-you-want format is the future of music. Case in point: a couple of months ago ZAZA tweeted about Kordan's (at the time, an unknown band to me) fantastic darkwave debut The Longing, which I highly recommend (don't know why I haven't blogged about it; it's great for late nights soaked in rain). Intrigued, I Googled Kordan, found the band's site and discovered their EP, which I could stream in its entirety. I liked what I heard, and through the aforementioned bandcamp.com (stitched into the Kordan site), downloaded the EP. I paid $5.

It was all so very 21st century: a band I like tweets about an unkown band; I Google the band; I find the band's site, where I can stream its music and pay what I want for it. The entire process was seamless and convenient -- it's also, I believe, the only process the music "industry" can employ to sustain itself.

In this day and age, thieves will steal music regardless of the laws, or, here's a refreshing reminder, the ethical/moral consequences, prohibiting it. If the band or record label offers its music directly via the Net AND allows the consumer to set the price, what are they losing? Everyday example: Joe Blow loves the Crystal Castles and wants to pick up the band's latest offering. He can A) go to iTunes or eMusic and pay the industry-set price (the album's probably already been leaked, I might add), B) go to his local indie record store (if it's still open, of course), C), which currently isn't an option for CC's fans, go directly to its site, stream it, download it, and pay what they want, or D) go to thepiratebay.com and get it within seconds and pay nothing. If a band's "fans" are going to steal its music regardless, why not let them steal it from the source? It's less morally troubling to steal money from a monster-mega bank, but it isn't so easy stealing dough from your parents.

Love it or hate it, In Rainbows was the first example of a band taking a pro-active dive into the choppy waters of the new music "industry," which, soon, won't be an industry at all, but a vast network of opportunistic bands.

xx